


The Legend of Maz Kanata

by storiopath



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Maz Kanata is alive, Maz Kanata is queen, Star Wars - Freeform, and Maz Kanata laughs at the Dark Side every chance she gets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 17:33:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9082483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiopath/pseuds/storiopath
Summary: Maz Kanata has watched empires rise and fall. She has built communities and watched them fade away. And when the Dark Side turns her doorstep to rubble, well, it isn't the first time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually two tumblr posts I wrote after The Force Awakens released that I've cleaned up and mashed together. Basically I love Maz Kanata and these were a bunch of headcanons I threw together.

Maz Kanata, inexplicably ancient, can look into your eyes and see the Force swirling in their depths. She will sense your struggles, know your triumphs, and can tell you the stories of at least 8 heroes whose eyes once reflected the same paths. Maz Kanata knows the Force, how it gamboles and seduces, and the Force knows her too, leading people and relics into her care. It is a delicate balance, a cycle of stories told between this old woman and the universe, that landed Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber in her cellars. Maz Kanata has seen wars that have passed out of even legend. Some who have heard rumors of the pirate queen whisper that she was a Jedi Master, one of the first, but left the Order when their philosophies shifted in a way that denied her heart. For a time, she was the most feared sniper and smuggler in the Republic. In older circles, when the experienced smugglers gather to trade stories and map out galactic hot spots, they whisper that the Kanata in charge of the bar is the same Kanata invoked as a pirate deity when the law closes in. Those who have witnessed Maz’s response to a single bar brawl know that order will be kept and find themselves one step closer to believing the rumors are true. Petty disputes must be left at the door of this smuggler’s haven. Everyone owes Maz Kanata a favor. But if she really likes you, she might give you one for free. 

Perched benevolently over the smuggler's haven, a giant statue of Maz Kanata stands with open arms. Every time someone cracks a joke about it ("Maz! I never pegged you as the sort to overcompensate - you already have a whole castle!"), she smiles fondly. "A gift from old friends," she says. "Seemed to think they might lose me in the grass if they didn't mark where I was." 

If you catch her in the early morning, as she washes glasses or sips at a drink kept for herself and friends, and if the mood is right and she likes your eyes, Maz might tell you more. Laughter creeping into her voice, she'll describe a crew of smugglers, in their prime 120 years ago, who took a collection under her nose and commissioned the giant sculpture for her. “Hey, Maz! So you know none of us can remember a time before you were here, right? Well we figure the universe must have decided your brews are too valuable for you to die - they keep the whole system running, after all! And since you’re gonna be the last of us to croak, we want you to have THIS to remember us by!” They ushered her out as one of their ships swooped overhead. A cargo hatch opened and Maz’s semblance, two of the crew swinging off its arms and toasting their patron, slowly lowered to the ground. She may describe the laughter and cheering of the crowd, and the day-long party that followed, with smugglers dropping in from across the galaxy to see the addition.

And then, nostalgic, Maz might tell you how the last of that crowd died 40 years ago. She remembers her final goodbyes to the crew that brought them all together, retired smugglers daring Maz to go first so she could have their drinks waiting for them on the other side. She comforts them, subtly guiding the Force to dull the pain of limbs tired from fighting, of hearts exhausted from the thrill of the chase and acting as both predator and prey. She weaves them a peace they so rarely knew in life, these tired friends once so vibrant and full of jokes.

When the First Order bombs her outpost, she knows the exact moment her statue is blasted off its pedestal, feels when the arms crumble and the body collapses in segmented disarray. Memories of laughter and cheers and deathbeds unravel around it as the First Order desecrates her home, the adopted home of hundreds of others over the years. 

Maz Kanata has lost several establishments in her long life, when the Dark Side of the Force overreaches and thinks it can crush her. So she shifts planets. She sets up a different kind of shop. Reconnects with old allies, calls in favors from smugglers and spies. Bounty hunters start turning up in obscure corners of the galaxy disrupting plans that the current Dark Side agency are certain were secret. Weapons and supply drops make their way to planets under siege. She builds a different haven, one for refugees fleeing a war that can consume planets. She recruits promising fighters and pilots, keeping many to run her own missions, but pointing some of them to the Rebellion. Because Maz Kanata is not a member of the Rebellion; she holds her own war council, and General Organa knows that any recruit appearing in the middle of the night with Maz Kanata’s recommendation will fly true and hit the mark. The two leaders, pirate queen and war general, keep a direct hologram video feed to each other in their chambers, to share information and discuss strategy. And if every now and then Rebellion pilots start a dog fight in deep space, disrupting the focus of the First Order long enough for a smuggler’s ship to slip under the radar alongside an X-wing escort… Well, winning a war takes all sorts.

Maz Kanata knows the stories the universe tells to itself and those who listen, so she gathers who she can in the aftermath, looks them in the eye, and she plans.


End file.
